The remains of the charred Grenfell Tower, where the death toll has reached 17 but is expected to rise.
Photograph: Frank Augstein/AP

The Labour MP David Lammy has called the Grenfell Tower blaze “corporate manslaughter” as police announced the number of dead had risen to 17 and warned it would rise further during a painstaking search of the remains of the building.

Firefighters were forced to stop looking for the dead on Thursday because of fears the building might collapse. The commissioner of the London fire brigade, Dany Cotton, said the search and retrieval of bodies could take weeks, as firefighters worked with other specialists to build structures inside the tower in order for a detailed search to be carried out.

Before that, however, specialist search dogs and handlers were being sent into the tower. “They will go through the building looking for identification of people. They are lighter and can cover a greater area in a shorter space of time,” she said.

Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, whose friend Khadija Saye and her mother, Mary Mendy, lived on the 20th floor of Grenfell Tower and were missing, gave a voice to the growing anger in the community.

“This is the richest borough in our country treating its citizens in this way and we should call it what it is. It is corporate manslaughter. And there should be arrests made; frankly, it is an outrage,” he said.

“Many of us across the country have been caught up in an election knocking on housing estate doors, travelling up to the top floors of tower blocks and we know as politicians that the conditions in this country are unacceptable.”

As residents woke from a night spent in makeshift shelters near the site of the fire, with some still awaiting news of those missing, the prime minister arrived at the tower block. Theresa May spoke to Cotton and other firefighters but she apparently left the scene without meeting residents who had been made homeless or were searching for loved ones. The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, also visited the scene and was seen being shown around the area by firefighters. “We have to get to the bottom of this,” he said. “The truth has got to come out and it will.”

The newly elected Labour MP for the area, Emma Dent Coad, said there was growing fear among residents made homeless by the fire that they would be rehoused outside of the borough, in cheaper housing in places far from London, such as Hastings or Peterborough, where the council has tried to rehouse tenants previously.

“I can’t help thinking that poor quality materials and construction standards may have played a part in this hideous and unforgivable event,” she said.

Commander Stuart Cundy of the Metropolitan police said: “Sadly the number of people dead is now 17, we do believe that number will increase.

“Our absolute priority is to identify and locate the victims and put an end to the agony of those waiting. My heart goes out to those families still trying to find their loved ones.”

He would not be drawn on the numbers of people missing, but said a significant number remained unaccounted for.

Cundy appealed for anyone who had made contact with a missing relative to let the casualty bureau know.

Cotton laid bare the scale and difficulty of the search for bodies in the still smouldering tower. She said: “We have identified a number of people who are still in the building. The higher floors will be more challenging and will need shoring up. It could take weeks. I want to be realistic.”

Cotton said as her officers worked small pockets of fire continued to flare up. The building would not be safe for the search to continue until firefighters, surveyors and the local council had worked to build structures inside the tower. Then a detailed fingertip search could be carried out inside by police forensic teams and firefighters.

“It is a very slow and painstaking process. We need to build structures to ensure it is safe,” she said.

The investigation into the fire was being led by DCI Matt Bonner, the police said. Cotton said firefighters had identified and entered the flat which was the source of the fire and carried out initial investigations. She would not be drawn on reports that this was on the fourth floor.

Cundy said it was too early to say whether the refurbishment project on the tower had anything to do with the fire.

Of the 78 people who had gone to six hospitals, 37 people were still being treated, 17 of them in critical care, NHS England said.

The Queen issued a statement offering her “thoughts and prayers” to the families who had lost loved ones. Lammy said his friend Khadija Saye, who worked for his wife, also an artist was “a beautiful young woman with an amazing career ahead of her”. He had heard nothing from her, he said. “Obviously as the seconds pass we grow more sad and bleak at every second,” he said.

The political fallout has been growing strident, with Labour calling on the government to answer “some very serious questions” about why it failed to act on coroners’ concerns about two previous tower block fires.

John Healey, the shadow housing minister, demanded that a government minister come to the Commons for a special statement session on Thursday. “Overnight we have asked the government: get a minister into parliament today, let parliament recognise how serious this tragedy is,” Healey told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

Missing residents of Grenfell Tower fire in west London

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“It is the sort of thing that allows us to pay respect to the victims, but importantly it helps provide some of the answers that people are asking about what went off, what’s being done and most importantly what’s not being done to learn the lessons and act after the last tragedies that we saw now nearly eight years ago.”

Healey accused ministers of rejecting or ignoring key recommendations of coroners’ reports into tower block fires in south London and Southampton. In 2009, a fire in the Lakanal House tower block in Camberwell killed six people and injured at least 20. In 2010, a fire at Shirley Towers apartment block in Southampton killed two firefighters.

Healey said there should be an immediate fire safety review of tower blocks.

Meanwhile, with nine firefighters suffering minor injuries, Cotton said that she was concerned about the effect on their mental health. “People saw and heard things on a scale they have never seen before,” she said. “Going forward one of my main concerns about my firefighters is about their mental wellbeing, and about doing trauma and care counselling for them.”